Skip to main content

Something to Watch: DVDs

The best two releases this week are animated. Disney’s Tangled was an absolute hoot on the big screen, and will be just as funny and fun filled on smaller screens, I feel certain. If you haven’t seen it, now is your chance. Be warned that in this movie the horse pretty much steals every scene he is in, which I found amazing for one simple fact; he does not get a single word of dialog. This one is being released in every format up to and including 3D.

The TV series worth noting this week is not sci-fi, but science: The Cosmos: A Beginner’s Guide. This one was built as part of the BBC 2 Open University project, and is in fact a collage level course for the price of a DVD TV series.

Evangelion: 2.22 You Can [Not] Advance brings us the updated second quarter of the re-imagined series. When completed, the four feature length films will take less total viewing time than the original 26 episodes and two movies although to be fair one of the movies was a retelling of episodes 25 and 26 to arrive at an alternate ending. Even so, they are getting all the key story line, plot twists, and character development of the original into them. To make it all fit, they are skipping a lot of the less important giant mecha vs. alien battles and just showing the critical ones. Whether you consider this an improvement or not depends to some extent on why you liked the original series, but I find that it makes for a denser story moving at a faster pace. While I haven’t heard of any plans to turn the new Manga series into an Anime yet, I should mention that Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse Graphic Novel 3 is being released by Dark Horse Comics this week as well.

The fantasy epic Guin Saga Collection 1 will also be released this week. Their homeland invaded, their parents slain, the prince and princess of Parro flee by means of a strange device hidden in the palace. It deposits them in the Forest of Rood, where a cat headed warrior named Guin saves them from their enemies; and so the story begins.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Skyline was not well received in part because Earth lost to the alien invaders. To me that wasn’t the point of the movie, but just part of the backdrop; the story was abut never giving up, even when they rip the spine and brain out of your body to use as spare programmable automation parts. I also thought that having humans be one of the resources the invasion was plundering the planet for was a realistic touch. It wouldn’t be cost effective to attack across interstellar distances if you did not maximize your return by utilizing everything you could from the target, and the processing power in the human brain still outstrips any computer we have managed to build so far. Odds are good their programming techniques would use far more than the 10% of the brain that most people are stuck with. A related film coming out on DVD this week, Battle of Los Angeles, I believe is the version from the Syfy Channel TV Movie production team, and not the one that hit the theaters a few weeks back.

This weeks documentary pick is the Walking Dead Girls, with George A. Romero, Lloyd Kaufman, and Bruce Campbell telling all about the rise of sexy bimbo zombies in America’s film culture. Even though I am not a horror fan, I had to mention this one for the silly factor alone.

For the younger crowd, Adventures of a Teenage Dragonslayer includes a wicked vice-principal, an evil dragon, a magical troll, and a 12 year old protagonist. Despite the title, the target audience appears to be noticeably younger than teenagers. Targeting that same audience, Arthur and the Invisibles 2 & 3: The New Minimoy also gets released on disk this week. It can be no surprise that the latter production is the superior product, since it comes from Luc Besson.

In anime, Bleach Uncut Box Set 8 comes out this week, bringing the US releases of the mostly human soul reaper team up to episode 151. One that looks like a lot of fun is Melancholy of Haruhi-Chan Suzumiya & Nyoron Churuya-san. This one started life as a Dojinshi, or fan-created manga, usually put together by a small team of fans, printed in limited runs, and sold at the huge Manga fests they run in Tokyo. This particular series was a parody of the original, done in small 4-panel single page segments, and it became so popular over there that it got picked up by Kodokawa and turned into an Anime series. Fair warning, the characters in this series are done in that terminally cute little-people Anime style known to cause kawaii overdoses in the sugar sensitive.

Also out this week, Ghost Sweeper Mikami Collection 3 continues the story of the money-hungry exorcist and her perverted sidekick as they use their considerable talents to satisfy their own personal desires. Finely, Kanokon: The Complete Series will finally become available. This one was supposed to follow the normal distribution path, first releasing three DVD volumes over the course of 6 months to a year (last year), and then coming out with the box set. But the second and third volumes were delayed to the point where Media Blasters finally announced they would just release the whole thing in a single package and price it low enough that those of us who bought volume 1 separately would not be punished for it. The story line is simple an familiar; boy (Kouta) transfers to new high school, meets girl Fox Deity (Chizuru) and rival girl Wolf Deity (Nozomu), both of whom want him for their own. Trust me when I say the normal high school male is helpless before two human girls in this kind of situation. When the women in question are both goddesses I give no odds on the boy surviving, let alone making a coherent decision about which one to be with. Obviously, this one is a comedy.

Something to Watch: DVD’s

Hereafter is a story of three people touched by Death in different ways. Matt Damon is the Psychic who doesn’t want to speak with those who have passed over any more, while others need his gift to understand what has happened to them. Strangely enough, this movie was directed by Clint Eastwood. Interplanetary is a low budget independent film in which everyone on Mars dies. You have to be a B movie horror fan for this one, I am afraid, as well as Sharktopus, which at least had a few names I have heard of involved.

I consider it a bit strange that I didn’t find any live action genre TV series coming out this week, but it had to happen sooner or later.

In Anime, D. Gray-Man: Season Two is the story of young exorcist Allen Walker, and the ghosts and demons he must battle to save humanity. Weighing in at 103 episodes (so far), if you like this one you can be comforted knowing there is more to come. Also, Gunslinger Girl: Complete Collection is hitting the shelves in a single box set, all 13 episodes plus the OVA’s, for less than $50. You should shop around for something noticeably less than $50, because you can pick up the 13 episode series for $29, and the OVAs for $9, or a combined price of $38.

Somthing to Watch: DVD’s

The best live action film this time around is not genre, but I will be looking for it: The Man from Nowhere, a Korean crime thriller. The one movie collection that looks like fun this week is Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: XX. The original movies may suck, but when the MST3K team is done with them they are a joy to watch. There are a few live action movie choices which I have never heard of and have no ideas about. Matty Hanson and the Invisibility Ray looks to be a family oriented direct to DVD selection, while The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff is a 1973 Spanish movie apparently of a more adult nature.

The clear winner for TV shows this week is The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season. Most people had a hard time believing this was a TV show, which is kind of silly. It isn’t on broadcast TV after all, so its creators had the full range of non-regulated choices available to any film maker or premium cable channel producer. I missed it when it originally aired, so I look forward to catching up with it now.

There are a few quality documentary TV shows this week, with the must-have option being Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. This is another one of those true science programs that explores the limits of scientific knowledge, and speculates its way past the borders those limits put up. Since that definition is at the heart of science fiction, you can understand why I love this program. The fact that it is done better than most documentaries, and explains the science it is extrapolating from in an easily understandable way is just bonus points in my book; I already loved this show! Some of the lesser known documentaries coming out now include Moon Race: Volumes 1 & 2 and Space Race: Volumes 1 & 2, I suspect from the same production company.

Tales from Earthsea is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, it is from Studio Ghibli, put together in 2006 from the wonderful story written by Ursula K LeGuin. But this one was the first venture by the son, Goro Miyazaki, and not the father, Hayao Miyazaki, and the lack of experience shows. Still, while not up to the masterworks dad cranks out, this version shows some promise, and I enjoyed it. I think that the review that spoke to the heart of the problem came from J-Film Powwow if you want to look into it deeper before making your decision. There are a few other projects by Ursula coming to the big screen soon, including Field of Vision, which looks absolutely amazing. And for true Ghibli fans, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is being released on Blue Ray on the same day.

There are a few re-releases worth noting this week, including the El Cazador de la Bruja – Complete Series, previously only available by season. Another Girls with Guns buddy series in the tradition of Noir (complete with the younger girl with a hole in her memory), this one takes place in the wild west. If you are not sure if this program is for you, you can watch it online before making your decision. Also, one of my favorite Anime’s of 2005, Speed Grapher, is coming out as a complete series SAVE edition, which means you can pick up the entire thing for $20 or so. The various home pages for the series seem to be gone, but if you are over 17 you can still watch it online. The story line is twisty and brutal, with many wealthy people paying for the chance to mutate into monsters with super powers, under the control of an evil mastermind. the animation is world class, the music bed and voice work is quite well done, and there are only two normal people in the entire cast (the protagonist and the victimized young girl he attempts to save). This one is a keeper.

Somthing to Watch: DVD’s

What If… stars Kevin Sorbo as the man who gets a glimpse of what his life would have become had he made different choices. Yes, we have seen this before in many different movies, but I think the actors this time around bring a unique perspective. Surviving the experience with these kind of glucose levels may be a bit of a challenge, of course.

Originally a PBS series episode, Pioneers of Television: Science Fiction is a documentary which explores how Star Trek, Lost in Space, and The Twilight Zone changed the way the future was viewed, while delivering modern morality plays able to explore topics normally untouchable on the small screen.

For western animation this time around there is really only one choice: ReBoot: The Definitive Mainframe Edition. I have been waiting entirely too long for this direct descendant of the original TRON to become available. This was the first fully computer generated TV animation in western countries, telling the stories of the Guardians and their battle with the Viruses they defended Mainframe from. Besides having animation of a quality that had not been seen before in a TV series, it had a unique story line filled to overflowing with concepts previously only available in a collage level computer course, but told in a way to make them understandable even to children. Out of this weeks choice, this one is the Must Have selection for me. NOTE: while the Shout Factory web site page talks about the complete series in a single box on 9 DVDs, the Amazon page lists Season 1 and 2 on 4 DVDs, and I don’t know if they are releasing two versions or had to scale back the scope of the release.

There is one new and one repackaged Anime entry this week. Shin Koihime Muso: Complete Collection involves a girl with a disease that will turn her into a cat if an antidote is not found, and a guy trying to forge a peace between the kingdoms.

Samurai Champloo – The Complete Series also becomes available this week. This re-release (the original was in 2009) is the story of friendship through combat skills, as a waitress, a Ronin, and a Samurai wander Edo-era Japan looking for a warrior who smells like sunflowers. This program completely changed the way everyone viewed Samurai movies or TV, with a hip-hop music line, a unique animation style, and some amazing fight sequences.

Somthing to Watch: DVD’s

Even though it is actually the Millennium Trilogy, apparently in this country it is being released as Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo Trilogy, and while not science fiction the world-class genius hacker girl at the core of this story gives it all the geek cred I will ever require of any movie series. Accept no substitutes, including the wimpy American remake; this one is the real deal.

Glenn, the Flying Robot is a movie from Belgium that is noticeably different than you think it is. Two old friends share a history and a skill set centered in their concert level piano playing, but as often happens they become rivals from the personal to the professional levels. When one looses the use of his hands due to external damage, Glenn is brought to the problem, applying mechanical digits to replace the flesh. This story goes in directions you were not at first expecting. The live action silly fun imported movie this week is Alien vs. Ninja, which is exactly what you think it is. Some of these titles lend themselves to an obvious progression, and this one fulfills its promise nicely.

This week’s TV series was never actually on TV, but rather only distributed online: The Guild: Season 4. Think about it; a TV show about playing online games together so good that Microsoft actually has sponsored them since season 2 for X-Box Live viewing.

Topping the choices for western animation this time, and in fact weighing in as the only contender, is Megamind. As usual, it is coming out as a DVD, and a Blue Ray/DVD edition. Surprisingly there does not seem to be a Digital Copy or 3D edition for this one, at least not at first. If you go with the DVD/Blue Ray edition, you can also pick it up in a 2-pack with Megamind: The Button of Doom, but be aware this is another non-Tuesday release. This one comes out Friday the 25th, and along with Despicable Me and Tangled made up the best that western animation had to offer for 2010, as far as I am concerned.

Gintama – Collection 4 continues the story of alien invaders in Edo-era Japan who enslave the population to their factories and distract them with TV and Anime, while forbidding any kind of fighting that might threaten their power or risk inciting rebellion. So Samurai and Ninja go disarmed and bored unto tears, while the world gets stranger still. Our Home’s Fox Deity Volume 2 brings the next twelve episodes of this tale of siblings to life; one pair the human brothers, Noboru and Toru, and their spiritual guardians, fox goddesses Kugen and Gyokuyo. And then there are various gods, werewolves, and clans of Oni (Demons) to continue to make life interesting for them!

The Paranormal Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters is the government organization which is supposed to protect Japan from supernatural attack, but one day things don’t go so well and a rival organization is forced to step in. Ga-Rei: Zero tells their tale. Also, becoming available in a single box set edition, the classic anime GunGrave is being re-released

There are a few classics being re-released in the US, including FLCL (pronounced Fooley Cooley), a truly insane little animation series from the folks who made Gurren Lagann and Neon Genesis Evangelion. While only six episodes long, this OVA has enough twists and turns for a full season of most other productions, and a killer soundtrack by The Pillows. The other classic title is Chrono Crusade, the story of a heavily armed nun and her demon sidekick battling the forces of evil in 1928 New York. If you missed getting either of these in your collection the first time around, now is your chance, and at a decent price if you shop around.